Posted
by
Zonkon Friday December 16, 2005 @01:11PM
from the better-than-ticked-off dept.

caffeinemessiah writes "The BBC reports that researchers at UIUC and the University of Amsterdam, Holland have used "emotion recognition" software to determine Mona Lisa's true emotions. The algorithm is based on a library of neutral face images of young women and determined that Mona Lisa was 83% happy and 9% disgusted." From the article: "The program, developed with researchers at the University of Illinois, US, draws on a database of young female faces to derive an average 'neutral' expression. The software uses this average expression as the standard for comparisons. The New Scientist says that software capable of recognising emotions just by looking at photographs could lead to PCs that adjust their response depending on the user's mood. "

It's not really about the subjects expression, it's about the painting's expression. People find the smile very interesting in this painting, and that is most of the reason for the painting's particularly great fame. Why is the smile so interesting to people? Perhaps it is the 9% disgust. That's what this kind of analysis can hope to tell us about our response to this painting.

That's assuming the study is logically sound. I didn't see them take into account how the Renessaince culture (with its repressive religious cooncerns and high-society rearings) might affect how emotions were facially expressed.

They're not trying to take the mystery out of it, they're trying to understand it in yet another way.

That's the truth, I think. Everyone sees Art in the way they choose. I think people often get upset when a new and scientific approach is taken to interpreting a piece of art however, because they often feel the scientist is implying their interpretation is somehow more valid than anothers. And to be fair, there is some truth to that.

83% happy and 9% disgusted? And just what does that mean? All of life's greatest mysteries can be solved in a quantitative manner?
I for one don't want my computer to act differently if I'm happy, sad, pissed off, stoned, whatever. Just what I've always wanted, a computer with a Genuine People Personality (TM).

He wasn't "gay" in the sense that you think of today. The concept of a gay identity (in other words another "us vs. them"-ism) is a relatively modern construct that arose during Victorian times, especially during the trial of Oscar Wilde.

Yes I was searching a commentary on culture to reply, since I have saw a few articles on how the americans and english smile differently. Culture afects many, many things including, apparently, how we express emotions. Sure there is a large "basic emotions" overlap that comes from instinct, we can even recognize them in other mammals, but to get a proper "reading" to a level of 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, that is cited in the article you must take into account culture, I believe.

Another way of testing this would use the program to test several different cultures people. If it holds aggainst the test, then I will be more inclined to believe that the mona lisa was 21% bored or whatever.

No, the parent is right. In those days, there were only gays acts, not gay people. By extension, the same thing went for straight people. People were just people, and their sex acts did not define them. There's definitely something to be said for that.